I recently spent an afternoon digging through the Nicholas Slonimsky Collection at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC to see if I could find evidence of correspondence between Ernie Stires and his beloved mentor.  I was pleased to locate a folder which contained several items.  Included with one of Ernie’s letters to Slonimsky was a Middlebury College Music Department program from 1988 presenting Stephanie Rogers, pianist, in recital performing the world premiere of Ernie’s Sonata in C.  A more intriguing discovery, however, was found written on the backside of the program:

ABOUT PIANOS…

Although tonight’s artist, Stephanie Rogers, will perform her entire program on a beautiful Mason and Hamlin grand piano, recent gift of recording engineer Sydney Stokes, the three sonatas we are to hear were conceived by their composers for three very different instruments.

Invented in Italy almost three hundred years ago by Bartolomeo Cristofori, the pianoforte was considered at first something of a musical toy. However, unlike its predecessor, the pluck-string harpsichord, a novel and ingenious system of striking hammers, dampers, and controls allowed this new instrument to be played soft (piano) or loud (forte) with infinite gradations in between, and spelled the doom of the two hundred year reign of the former as the premiere keyboard instrument for home and recital hall. It was to be almost seventy years before this new novelty came into general use in Europe but many composers, including J.S. Bach, were intrigued with it, and demand spawned a plethora of piano makers everywhere.

There were problems! Early pianos were built on harpsichord lines whose wooden frames simply could not support the much greater tension of more and larger strings of the new device which frequently warped and even collapsed under the strain, even in performance. Think of the additional strain on the nerves of those poor early pianists!

All manner of wooden and metal braces and reinforcements were tried, and by the time Haydn began writing tonight’s sonata (1789), a rectangular (so-called “square piano”) was in general use, a more-or-less stable instrument of six octaves and sustaining a total tension of several thousand pounds. The design persisted into the period of the Schubert Sonata in A (1828) but improvements were constant, and stronger cases allowed ever more tension with its attendant increased brilliance and resonance.

It is said that the enormous fire and energy of the piano music of Beethoven produced such a strain on pianos of this period that piano makers fell into something of a commercial panic trying to build ever stronger instruments. Cast iron frames were introduced, pedals went to the floor instead of the usual knee levers of earlier instruments, the general harpsichord-like shape returned for larger pianos, and by the time of the early romantic composers like Chopin and Schuman, tension of several tons was possible.

But it was not until the American piano builders, Steinway & Sons of Long Island City introduced their “patent grand” in 1859 that the modern grand piano was born. With seven and a third octaves (the legendary “88″) and supporting a total tension of some thirty tons (!) the Steinway grand became the standard of the world, changing forever the way the piano is written for and played. With minute modifications, this magnificent instrument remains to this day the model for all grand pianos, including the Mason and Hamlin we are hearing this evening. So intricate, varied and complex are its tonal and percussive elements that a piano is by far the most difficult instrument to record, and even the most sophisticated modern “state of the art” electronic synthesizing devices can only crudely approximate its true sound which approaches the orchestral in range of expression.

The Stires piece, Sonata in C (1988), a heavily jazz-oriented work, written on an 1897 Steinway grand, makes extensive use of the capabilities of the modern piano. The piece employs virtually every one of the instrument’s 88 keys from the lowest (A”) to the highest (c”"), and in the final movement depends heavily on the center or sostenuto pedal which permits the “holding” of a note or series of notes while the remaining are played in normal fashion.

Tonight’s program is being recorded by Sydney Stokes for broadcast early next year over the stations of Vermont Public Radio.

—Ernie Stires

Ernie Stires came from a prestigious lineage of musicians. Ernie’s cousin was legendary American composer Samuel Barber,  widely known for his piece Adagio For Strings (or Agnus Dei, for voices arranged by the composer). Louise Homer, Ernie’s grandmother, was a world-class contraltist who sang at the Metropolitan Opera in New York for 30 years. Her husband (and Ernie’s grandfather), Sydney Homer, was an American art song composer of note, writing many vocal pieces for his wife to sing on her world tours (which was no small feat for a performing artist living over a hundred years ago). The list goes on…

Grandmother Louise was also one of the earliest recording artists for Victor’s Red Seal label from 1905 through the 1920s. Led by the great tenor Enrico Caruso, Red Seal Records featured many of the famous opera singers of the day. These recordings can be hard to come by, usually found in forgotten stacks in the bowels of antique barns.  Which is exactly where I was (Peters’ Auction Barn, Jeffersonville, NY) when I hit the jackpot and bought up every one I could find as a gift to Ernie for his 80th birthday.

Since Ernie’s passing I have often wondered where those records ended up.  Hopefully in the possession of a family member who will treasure them and pass them down through the generations as a reminder of how musically gifted their gene pool really is.  For the rest of us, we can now find them here. Thanks to analog-to-digital transfer skills of Tim Ecker, many early recordings made by Ernie’s world-famous grandmother Louise Homer are finally available on Archive.org. The collection includes Ms. Homer singing alongside fellow Met performer Caruso, among others.

I especially admire the delicate arrangement of Schubert’s ‘Du bist die Ruh’ sung as a duet by Mme. Homer and her daughter, Ernie’s mother, Louise Homer Stires.

While you’re visiting Archive.org, you might be interested in sifting through the Prelinger Archives. This collection of old television commercials and corporate videos is guaranteed to provide hours of entertainment, if not a worthy history lesson in advertisement. In addition, the entire collection is in the public domain. Sample-based artists, take heed.

” Every child should have an opportunity to learn to play some musical instrument and should be taught to sing. All schools, including the lower grades, should have teachers of music of high standard. For children with special aptitude for music, more intensive teaching should be provided, including the study of the counterpoint and form of Bach and Mozart, and more time for practice should be allowed.

The study of music greatly increases a child’s sensibility, his sensitiveness to balance and form and to beauty of every kind, and his consciousness of the more subtle meanings. The playing of an instrument demands concentration, coordination and self-control. In playing great music a child comes under the influence of men of the highest genius – men who arouse ideals, create standards, and inspire confidence. In playing in an orchestra or singing in a chorus he takes part in a work which demands perfect cooperation and the highest discipline.

Thus the study of music meets every requirement of education and can do its part toward preparing the child for the years of maturity. it will make his hours of work easier and more interesting (as all culture does), and will make his hours of leisure happier and more profitable.

Men who see our daily life as a sort of glorified prize ring, and who want their boys to be tough and aggressive, may get what they want, but they may not have the gratitude of their sons. Life is not a prize ring, and many a hard, tough character has found himself stranded in a society that had other standards.

The music of the great masters is not abstruse or obscure. it was written from the human heart in its more exalted and inspired state, with all the powers of expression at their very height, at white heat. These composers did not disdain their hearers, but with passionate honesty strove to reach them. They bared their hearts and poured out their feelings before all the world, and the finest and truest consciousness within them guided their music. They have communicated their sincerity to their interpreters, and thus this music stands inflexible in its purity, and inexorable in its demands on the nobility and rectitude of its hearers. In its presence all those who can hear are elevated and made whole. The consciousness of the ability to share in this wonderful art has had much to do with the development of self-confidence.

Music knows no limitations. A tune is a tune wherever born, and nothing can destroy its appeal. Regardless of barriers of race, space, and time, it travels cheerfully throughout the world and is loved everywhere.

There is more to music than many men, including many educators, realize. Teachers wish to arouse a love for lyric poetry: composers have done much to give lyric poetry a place in daily life. Teachers wish to instill a reverence for the higher forms of the drama: composers have given the drama new glories and verities. Teachers wish to develop nobility in their pupils: nowhere will they find greater help than in music. Great composers have given their lives for the expression of the noblest emotions of which man is capable. Educations have in music a tremendous power, ready to hand.

Every city and town should have a small fund for the higher musical education of those rare young people who show positive genius for music. The expense would be a trifle, but the returns would be enormous. A musical genius belongs to the people and should be educated by the people. To place the responsibility for the training of such children on their parents is wrong. Find performances of great musical works should be made possible, and they should be accessible to all. This, too, is a public responsibility.

We are slowly becoming aware of the fact that, if humanity does not insist on going right, it will go dangerously wrong. We are gradually acquiring a desire to cooperate with those men of genius of every kind who labored to elevate mankind. So long as we were not afraid, we were willing to keep art to ourselves. Exclusiveness had a glamour, and we fondly thought it enhanced art. But now we are afraid, and we want to use art for the softening and appeasing of all mankind. If we had begun earlier, perhaps we need never have known fear.

However, the business at hand is to use music in a great way. For that we need great artists; and fortunately we have them. But now is the time to prepare the artists of the next generation; in the enjoyment of what we have, we must not forget the future. Nothing is more fatuous than the easy assumption that we shall always have plenty of artists. We may not. Artists have a way of disappearing off the face of the earth so that all the King’s horses cannot find them. Liszt provided most of the concert pianists for the generation which followed him.

Men will ask: Will the outlay and effort necessary for great performances bring adequate return? Yes. Bayreuth, Salzburg, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and Worcester, Massachusetts – to mention but a few of the smaller cities – have had great performances; and every inhabitant, down to the last man, has known what it has meant to his city. There need be no qualms. Art is the greatest investment the world has ever known. ”

- Sidney Homer (Ernie’s grandfather), 1939. Preface to his memoir My Wife and I: The Story of Louise and Sidney Homer

I have to quickly remark on a 24-part lecture series I’ve been thoroughly enjoying entitled, “The Symphony” by Robert Greenberg, Ph.D. and distributed by The Teaching Company.

With an energetic and entertaining delivery (think Mel Brooks), Dr. Greenberg brings us the 300-year-old story of the symphony, from its earliest development, breaking free from its Italian opera overture heritage, to its most modern configurations throughout the world in the 20th century (including American composers Charles Ives, Aaron Copland, Roy Harris, and Ernie’s cousin Samuel Barber).

It’s well worth a listen, and covers many of the great symphonies included on Ernie’s essential classical music listening list (see list here). Appropriate for the aspiring composer and the layman alike, its a supermarket display of some of the greatest symphonies ever written. Like Aaron Copland’s book What To Listen For in Music, these lectures will leave you with a clearer understanding of the general structure of the symphony as well as the specific musical forms found within individual movements resulting in a greater appreciation for the music. In addition, “The Symphony” is chock-full of facts and juicy gossip about the lives and personalities of the greatest symphonic composers, bringing to life the story of one of the longest-living genre of instrumental music.

You can find a used (and cheap) copy here.

While listening to NPR’s review of guitarist Sharon Isbin’s latest release Journey to the New World the other day, I was reminded of something Ernie once suggested during a discussion on the composer’s role in popular music. Isbin’s album, which also features performances by Joan Baez and Mark O’Connor, presents a new composition and a world premiere recording by the late British composer John Duarte. Entitled Joan Baez Suite, Opus 144, the piece includes songs Joan Baez either wrote or helped make famous including The House of the Rising Sun, The Lily of the West, The Unquiet Grave, Silkie, and Where Have All The Flowers Gone. But instead of presenting these songs in familiar form, Duarte used them as fodder for something entirely new, discovering previously hidden musical secrets of these well-worn tunes by experimenting and altering the chords, the rhythms, and even the melodies themselves.

Ernie’s advice? Take a popular song and develop it into an extended composition. Starting with a simple theme, a composer can construct many variations, massaging a melody into new forms as well as altering the environment, or harmony, it lives in. Duarte seems to have done just that with these popular melodies, though it’s not a new idea. Swing band leaders and arrangers sustained successful careers by taking familiar songs and giving them a distinctive new twist. Even the great composers wrote compositions based on borrowed tunes, like Mozart’s Variations on “Ah vous dirai-je, Maman” [Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star].

Though a tried and true idea, it’s one I’d like to see more of in contemporary pop. Too much today’s music is centered around abandoned good starts, or “hooks”. Sure, a hook is a great device to grab the attention of your audience, but why be satisfied with the cut-and-paste repetition we’ve grown so accustomed to? Why not try altering the hook every time it comes around again? Change the chord progression? Discover a pathway to a new key? Turn it on it’s head and play it backward? Personally, I’d be more interested in listening to the pop music community if they spent less energy on the superficial and devoted more effort toward uncovering the creative roadways aching to be discovered.

“My muse is a combination of Tallulah Bankhead and Bette Davis,” he drawls. “She smokes and she drinks and she’s sore because she has me.”

-Ernie Stires, interviewed by Ruth Horowitz for the Seven Days

Ernie often prodded me to listen to more music, especially classics written by the great composers. I once asked him for suggestions and he effortlessly rattled off a list. In my futile attempt to keep up with him, I managed to jot down enough to keep me busy for a while. Ernie was a proponent of active listening, as opposed to playing these pieces as background music or using them as sleep aids. He proved the value of a keen ear with his ability to sing the themes of all of the following compositions. I even have shorthand notes next to a few of them which describe special harmonic and rhythmic traits he thought I should pay especially close attention to. Anyway, here’s the list:

Bach, Johann Sebastian – The Brandenburg concerti

Bartok, Bela – Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta

Beethoven, Ludwig van – Symphonies 5 & 7
Beethoven, Ludwig van – Violin Concerto

Brahms, Johannes – Symphonies 1 & 4
Brahms, Johannes – Violin Concerto
Brahms, Johannes – Variations on a Theme by Haydn
Brahms, Johannes – Piano Concerto No. 1

Britten, Benjamin – A Ceremony Of Carols

Copland, Aaron – Lincoln Portrait

Debussy, Claude – Images

Dvorak, Antonin – Piano Quintet

Gershwin, George – Concerto In F / An American In Paris

Grieg, Edvard – Piano Concerto

Handel, George Frederick – Water Music / Music for the Royal Fireworks

Harris, Roy – Symphony No. 3

Haydn, Franz Joseph – The “London” Symphonies (Nos. 91-104)

Ives, Charles – Piano Sonata No. 2
Ives, Charles – Symphony No. 2

Mahler, Gustav – Symphony No. 1 / Songs of a Wayfarer

Mendelssohn, Felix – Octets

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus – Symphony No. 40
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus – Piano Concerto No. 21
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus – Clarinet Concerto

Rachmaninov, Sergey – 3rd Symphony

Respighi, Ottorino – The Pines of Rome / The Fountains of Rome / Roman Festivals

Schumann, Robert – Piano Quintet
Schumann, Robert – Piano Concerto

Stojowski, Zygmunt – First Concerto for Piano & Orchestra

Stravinksy, Igor – The Rite Of Spring / Firebird
Stravinsky, Igor – Petrushka

Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Ilyich – 6th Symphony
Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Ilyich – Piano Concerto No. 1
Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Ilyich – Violin Concerto

Villa-Lobos, Heitor – Guitar Concerto

Walton, William – Viola Concerto

In my ongoing quest to becoming a more prolific and inspired composer, I always think back to something Ernie once said to me, “You’re only a composer when you’re composing.” In other words, a composer should only call himself a composer when he is actually sitting down and writing music. Many people who aspire to do something can easily fall into the trap of talking about “it” more than actually doing “it”. From my experience, I’ve found it’s an exhausting game that can only lead to more frustration and fewer pieces of music added to my catalog.

So, the next time you’re out at a cocktail party and someone asks you what you do, instead of saying “I’m a composer,” try something a little more honest and in the moment like, “I’m a socialite.”

With guitarist Trey Anastasio of Phish being Ernie’s most publicized disciple,  many people are under the impression that Ernie taught guitar lessons.  While it is true that most of the budding composers who sought out Ernie’s advice played guitar as their primary instrument (with the exception of Jamie Masefield of JMP, who mostly performs on mandolin), Ernie was not a guitar player.  First and foremost, Ernie considered himself a composer, and rightly so.  He used the piano as his main tool for writing music, and stressed to us the importance of having basic keyboard skills.  His view was that the piano was the most versatile instrument a composer could work with, allowing for large group arrangements to be worked out with two hands.  The guitar, on the other hand, is limited in its nature as a composing and arranging tool, only allowing for several simultaneous notes and a narrow note range in any given position.  That isn’t to say that Ernie didn’t enjoy the guitar as an instrument, especially in the right hands.  He often played a Wes Montgomery recording for me as a good example of an altered blues (S.K.J. off of the album Bags Meets Wes) and spoke highly of Jim Hall.  Guitarist Barry Galbraith and Ernie also had a special musical friendship while they were both living in Vermont.  They worked out jazzy arrangements of Bach tunes together which, if I’m not mistaken, were sold through Jamey Aebersold Jazz at some point.  There was even an old Polytone jazz guitar amp in Ernie’s living room, usually parked underneath the grand piano.  I’m sure we all used it with him at some point while playing songs out of Ernie’s handwritten book of jazz standards.  I wonder who left it there in the first place?

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